Sick Day

Leave it to me to get sick on the first 80 degree day in October. I have been sick all week, but yesterday I was too sick to even move, let alone go to work. I texted my work pal at 7am telling her how broken I was. I then drifted off to sleep until 8 when I called and let work know that it was official. I’m sick… like, legitimately.

Now, I should have known I was getting sick by all of the awful nightmares I have been having. I attributed them to the new mattress that Captain Clam surprised me with on Monday. I thought that maybe since I was sleeping well and not having to wake up every 3 hours to add air to the bed that my dreams were just catching up with an uninterrupted sleep cycle. I also attributed the very early 7:30 pm bed-times to the new mattress. Basically I have lived in bed since we got it. I am either extremely excited to have the new mattress or I am really stinkin’ sick.

I took a sick day. I wanted to take 2, but unfortunately I am still in my 90 day trial period and I simply don’t get paid days off yet (I don’t even get paid holidays yet (whaaa)). As it were, I woke up from my third nightmare where I had a beard tattoo growing up my neck and onto my chin. It was red and blue. In my dream all I could think was “This must be a dream. Why would I do this?” Thankfully, it was and I woke up in horror.

John Henry Fuseli’s “The Nightmare”. I named that little demon on top “influenza”. How poetic.

One of my dreams was a very vivid kidnap dream with crazy amounts of violence. The dream was incredibly gory. However, I didn’t wake up scared or full of adrenaline, but I was really kind of thinking “What the Fuck” when a high school friend tried to manually tie my tubes with a kitchen knife.

Somewhere along the way there was a dream about a monster hunting retreat you could sign up for. The hunting grounds were on an old estate that was littered with old vehicles full of supplies and weapons. You were allowed to bring your hunting dogs with you, but they were liable to turn on you at any given point in the “game”. After the first week, all the participants who were left standing were invited to a “ball” where they were given a night off from the monsters. The monsters ranged from Dinosaurs to zombies. Sounds like an awesome video game about nothing to me (I could make MILLIONS!).

I googled “zombie monster” and this is what I got.

There are a few more fever dreams (like the one with all the road kill bears), but those are the strangest. After my encounter with them, I was certainly not ready to face a day that needed to be started at 6am. When I finally rolled out of bed at 10:30 (I don’t even sleep that late on weekends! Gosh I am getting old), I had a small spark of ambition since I figured it was a “day off”. Oh my, how wrong I was! I am realizing that most of the sick days I used at my previous job were mostly “mental health” days, and that my current sick day was just that… a sick day.

That’s what a sick clam looks like.

I was completely unable to function at all yesterday. I was inspired to write this blog post and finish a few others that I have neglected for far too long (remember 6 Word Stories?) I even thought that a walk to the park would help me, maybe a little sunshine would dry out my face, or maybe I could sweep and mop and do laundry and toilet train the kitties on this glorious day filled with sneezing and coughing and all kinds of other things you need toilet paper for. And there’s the kicker. We didn’t have any toilet paper.

An excellent pun.

But at least we had internet.

I spent most of the day on Netflix, Facebook and watching cat videos (HERE is a link the the greatest thing in the world as of yesterday). I also spent a ridiculous amount of time on www.landandfarm.com looking for the perfect homestead in Maine for me and My Captain. I did find a few doozies and gladly shared them with Le Clam when he got home from work last night. What we have discovered about Maine is that no one has ever cracked open an Architectural Digest and that you can never have enough pine in your life. Wall paper is a different story.

I LOVE PINE!

Despite my inability to move but admiration for the thought of being motivated, I was able to do the dishes, tidy up the apartment, put some laundry away (which consisted of me putting most of it back into the laundry bin or directly into the garbage), make the deliciously comfortable NEW and exciting bed ( yes, I am counting that, even though I laid down most of the day, but ON TOP of the covers), shower (it was more like a bath with the shower on), and make myself something to eat (and by “make myself something to eat” I mean I made Ramen Noodles (strangely, Mr T. Was climbing into the bowl trying to get at them. She’s such a frat girl!)).

The moral of my story is that sick days when you are truly sick (like pieces of your lungs are coming out of your mouth) are meant to be spent in bed being cuddled by furry animals watching bad tv and eating soup. At a certain point it hurts to even think about doing anything else (like bathing). It’s okay to be sick and to take a day to heal. I only wish I had taken a second day to finish the beginning of recovery before heading all snot nosed back to the office. And it’s okay to be sick of soup, since now that is all you are allowed to eat (according to every mom’s advice). It’s only for a week or so!

Sorry if this post totally sucked. I am still so sick and can’t even see straight, but I love you for making it this far through the bungling ramble of my words. My next post will be awesome. I promise (all you Wizard of Oz Fans out there).